- What is awcodes/trov-whitepages and what does it do?
- Trov Whitepages is a Laravel package that adds a searchable directory of people and organizations to your application. It ships Eloquent-style models and flexible query helpers so you can build contact lookups, member lists, or company indexes without designing the schema yourself. Integration is intentionally lightweight, so the package fits alongside your existing Laravel models rather than replacing them.
- How do I install trov-whitepages with Composer?
- Require the package with composer require awcodes/trov-whitepages, then follow the setup steps in the README. Those steps normally involve publishing and running the package migrations, and publishing a config file if one is provided. Laravel's package auto-discovery registers the service provider, so no manual provider entry is usually needed.
- Which Laravel and PHP versions does trov-whitepages support?
- Supported versions are declared in the package's composer.json constraints, which is the authoritative source. Check those require entries against your application's Laravel and PHP versions before installing. Because the package is Eloquent-based, it works on any Laravel release that satisfies those constraints.
- Do I need to run migrations or publish config for this package?
- Yes, the package needs its tables before you can store or query people and organizations. Publish the migrations with the vendor:publish command documented in the README and run php artisan migrate. If a config file is shipped, publish and review it so table names and defaults match your application.
- How do I search the directory for a person or organization?
- Searching is done through the package's models and query helpers, which let you filter people and organizations by name and other indexed attributes. The README documents the exact model names, relationships, and scope methods, so check there before writing your own constraints. For large directories, combine the package queries with pagination rather than loading full result sets.
- Can trov-whitepages replace a full CRM or contact management system?
- No. It provides a structured, searchable directory of people and organizations, not pipelines, deal stages, activity timelines, or email automation. It is a good fit when you need clean lookup data inside your own Laravel app and want to build domain features on top of it. Treat it as the data layer for contacts, not a complete CRM.
- Is trov-whitepages production ready and actively maintained?
- Review the repository's release history, open issues, and last commit date before committing to it in production. Because the package is small and model-driven, the main risks are schema changes across major versions and compatibility with your Laravel release. Pin a version in composer.json and run your test suite against it after upgrades.
- Can I extend the models or add my own fields to the directory?
- Eloquent models are easy to extend, so typical customization means subclassing a model, adding your own migrations with extra columns, or wrapping package queries in your own repositories. Define relationships from your existing tables to the directory records if you need per-user ownership or tenancy. Keep custom columns nullable or defaulted so package queries continue to work unchanged.
- How should I test a directory built with trov-whitepages?
- Use an in-memory SQLite database with the RefreshDatabase trait and the package migrations, then seed a small set of people and organizations. Assert that your search queries return the expected records and that pagination boundaries behave correctly. This keeps directory tests fast enough to run in CI on every commit.
- How is this different from writing my own contacts table or using Laravel Scout?
- Rolling your own table gives total control but costs setup time for schema, models, and search ergonomics, which is what this package aims to remove. Laravel Scout is a driver for full-text search across your existing models and solves a different problem, so the two can be combined if you need fuzzy matching over a large directory. If your needs are a simple searchable list of people and organizations, the package is the lighter option.